Multilevel Diode-Clamped Converter for Photovoltaic Generators With Independent Voltage Control of Each Solar Array

In photovoltaic (PV) power systems where a set of series-connected PV arrays (PVAs) is connected to a conventional two-level inverter, the occurrence of partial shades and/or the mismatching of PVAs leads to a reduction of the power generated from its potential maximum. To overcome these problems, the connection of the PVAs to a multilevel diode-clamped converter is considered in this paper. A control and pulsewidth-modulation scheme is proposed, capable of independently controlling the operating voltage of each PVA. Compared to a conventional two-level inverter system, the proposed system configuration allows one to extract maximum power, to reduce the devices voltage rating (with the subsequent benefits in device-performance characteristics), to reduce the output-voltage distortion, and to increase the system efficiency. Simulation and experimental tests have been conducted with three PVAs connected to a four-level three-phase diode-clamped converter to verify the good performance of the proposed system configuration and control strategy.     

Fundamental-Frequency-Modulated Six-Level Diode-Clamped Multilevel Inverter for Three-Phase Stand-Alone Photovoltaic System

This paper presents a fundamental-frequency-modulated diode-clamped multilevel inverter (DCMLI) scheme for a three-phase stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) system. The system consists of five series-connected PV modules, a six-level DCMLI generating fundamental-modulation staircase three-phase output voltages, and a three-phase induction motor as the load. In order to validate the proposed concept, simulation studies and experimental measurements using a small-scale laboratory prototype are also presented. The results show the feasibility of the fundamental frequency switching application in three-phase stand-alone PV power systems.     

Application of a three-level NPC inverter as a three-phase four-wire power quality compensator by generalized 3DSVM

A two-level four-leg inverter has been developed for the three-phase four-wire power quality compensators. When it is applied to medium and large capacity compensators, the voltage stress across each switch is so high that the corresponding dv/dt causes large electromagnetic interference. The multilevel voltage source inverter topologies are good substitutes, since they can reduce voltage stress and improves output harmonic contents. The existing three-level neutral point clamped (NPC) inverter in three-phase three-wire systems can be used in three-phase four-wire systems also, because the split dc capacitors provide a neutral connection. This paper presents a comparison study between the three-level four-leg NPC inverter and the three-level NPC inverter. A fast and generalized applicable three-dimensional space vector modulation (3DSVM) is proposed for controlling a three-level NPC inverter in a three-phase four-wire system. The zero-sequence component of each vector is considered in order to implement the neutral current compensation. Both simulation and experimental results are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed 3DSVM control strategy. Comparisons between the 3DSVM and the 3-D hysteresis control strategy are also achieved.     

DC Link Capacitor Voltage Balancing in a Three-Phase Diode Clamped Inverter Controlled by a Direct Space Vector of Line-to-Line Voltages

In this paper, the direct modulation strategy of a three-level inverter with self stabilization of the dc link voltage is extended to a five-level inverter. Therefore, a new modeling and control strategy of a five-level three-phase diode-clamped inverter (DCI) is presented. The obtained modeling shows that modulated multilevel voltages are obtained by combination of eight different three-level functions, which are called modulation functions. Therefore, a space-vector scheme without using a Park transform is explained. Based on this algorithm, the location of the reference voltage vector can be easily determined. Then, the voltage vectors are selected to generate corresponding levels and simultaneously their durations are calculated. More over, the redundancies of different switch configurations for the generation of intermediate voltages are used to limit the deviation of capacitor voltages. Experimental results are given to illustrate the proposed control strategy of the three-phase three-level diode clamped inverter. Then, obtained results for a five-level three-phase DCI with the extended version of the control strategy are presented to show the good performances of the proposed balancing modulation.     

On-line compensation of dead-time and inverter nonlinearity with disturbance voltage observer

This paper discusses and analyses a simple on-line compensation scheme for dead-time and inverter nonlinearity in the pulse width modulated (PWM) voltage source inverter (VSI). Dead-time effect and voltage drop in switching devices cause nonlinearity between reference and output voltage. In a conventional three-phase six-switch inverter, this nonideal condition adds extraneous harmonics that badly disturb voltage characteristics. In its turn, voltage disturbance causes distortion of the current waveform and degrades performance. In this paper, an on-line dead-time compensation method based on inverse dynamics control is proposed, and it is much simpler than conventional full/reduced order observation methods adopted in dead-time compensation. Disturbance voltages are observed on-line with no additional circuitry or off-line measurements. The observed disturbance voltages are fed back to the voltage reference for compensation. Stability problem of the proposed observer arisen from inverter delay and parameter mismatch was analysed. The proposed method is applied to a surface-mounted permanent-magnet synchronous motor (SPMSM) drive. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is validated by the experimental results.     

Three-phase power quality compensator under the unbalanced sources and nonlinear loads

A three-phase voltage-source inverter for a power quality compensator under the unbalanced mains and nonlinear loads is proposed to provide balanced three-phase source current and improve input power factor. The proposed converter is based on the conventional three-phase voltage-source inverter with three additional ac power switches to achieve three-level pulsewidth modulation. The voltage stress of three ac power switches is clamped to half the dc-link voltage. The balanced reference mains currents are estimated using the dc-bus voltage and load currents. A proportional-integral voltage controller is used in the outer loop to compensate the switching losses of the voltage-source inverter. To perform the integrated power quality compensation, a hysteresis current control scheme is adopted to track the balanced line current command in phase with mains voltage. Three voltage levels are generated on the ac terminal of the proposed inverter. Computer simulation and experimental results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.     

Hybrid Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel-Inverter Induction-Motor-Drive Direct Torque Control for Automotive Applications

This paper presents a hybrid cascaded H-bridge multilevel motor drive direct torque control (DTC) scheme for electric vehicles (EVs) or hybrid EVs. The control method is based on DTC operating principles. The stator voltage vector reference is computed from the stator flux and torque errors imposed by the flux and torque controllers. This voltage reference is then generated using a hybrid cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter, where each phase of the inverter can be implemented using a dc source, which would be available from fuel cells, batteries, or ultracapacitors. This inverter provides nearly sinusoidal voltages with very low distortion, even without filtering, using fewer switching devices. In addition, the multilevel inverter can generate a high and fixed switching frequency output voltage with fewer switching losses, since only the small power cells of the inverter operate at a high switching rate. Therefore, a high performance and also efficient torque and flux controllers are obtained, enabling a DTC solution for multilevel-inverter-powered motor drives.      

基于升降压斩波电路的三相DC/AC逆变器研究

为了解决常用的逆变器所带来的问题,我们提出一种新型的带升降压功能的三相DC/AC变换器拓扑,并介绍了其工作原理。借助于PSIM仿真软件,对单相和三相电路进行了仿真研究,提出了由单相组成三相电压输出的构成方法。在列出仿真参数的前提下,给出了负载电压,负载电流以及调制给定电压和逆变器输出电压的仿真结果。仿真结果表明三相DC/AC逆变器可以实现50 kHz高频功率变换下宽输入电压范围工频逆变输出,证明了理论分析的正确性。     

An Investigation on Design and Switching Dynamics of a Voltage Source Inverter to Compensate Unbalanced and Nonlinear Loads

In this paper, design aspects of various passive components and switching dynamics of a voltage source inverter (VSI) for compensating unbalanced and nonlinear load are presented. The design method for VSI to track desired reference currents smoothly, is illustrated. By using the proposed method, it is possible to design the passive components of different VSI topologies used for load compensation. The results are supported by detailed simulation studies on a three-phase four-wire compensated system using PSCAD 4.2.1. The design steps are also verified by conducting experiments using a prototype model developed in the laboratory.      

Finite control set predictive control of shunt hybrid power filter

This paper proposes a finite control set predictive control (FCS-PC) scheme for the shunt hybrid power filter (SHPF) to reduce the power loss while maintaining satisfactory power quality at the utility’s grid terminals. By means of the instantaneous power theory, the controller for the proposed method can generate the reference voltage for the SHPF voltage source inverter (VSI) for the future sampling time. Therefore, during a sampling time, the vector of the reference voltage is compared with the finite number of voltage vectors existent in the VSI to select the vector that best fits the cost function of the controller. The proposed method, compared with the conventional pulse width modulation (PWM) carrier method, has the capability of suppressing similarly the harmonic currents at grid terminals and controlling VSI DC-link voltage while maintaining low switching frequencies in the devices. This method shows simplicity in digital implementation because it does not need a PWM block to obtain the VSI gating signals. In addition, a comparison of the proposed FCS-PC method with the conventional carrier-based PWM method is presented and discussed. Parameter errors in the controller are studied and their effects on system performance are explained. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated with simulation and experimental results during steady-state operation and transient response of the system.     

An accurate approach of nonlinearity compensation for VSI inverter output voltage

An accurate nonlinearity compensation technique for voltage source inverter (VSI) inverters is presented in this paper. Because of the nonlinearity introduced by the dead time, turn-on/off delay, snubber circuit and voltage drop across power devices, the output voltage of VSI inverters is distorted seriously in the low output voltage region. This distortion influences the output torque of IM motors for constant V/f drives. The nonlinearity of the inverter also causes 5th and 7th harmonic distortion in the line current when the distributed energy system operates in the grid-connected mode, i.e., when the distributed energy system is parallel to a large power system through the VSI inverter. Therefore, the exact compensation of this nonlinearity in the VSI inverter over the entire range of output voltage is desirable. In this paper, the nonlinearity of VSI inverter output voltage and the harmonic distortion in the line current are analyzed based on an open-loop system and a L-R load. By minimizing the harmonic component of the current in a d-axis and q-axis synchronous rotating reference frame, the exact compensation factor was obtained. Simulations and experimental results in the low frequency and low output voltage region are presented.     

A New PWM Strategy Based on a 24-Sector Vector Space Decomposition for a Six-Phase VSI-Fed Dual Stator Induction Motor

This paper presents a new space vector pulsewidth modulation (SVPWM) technique for the control of a six-phase voltage source inverter (VSI)-fed dual stator induction machines (DSIM). A DSIM is an induction machine which has two sets of three-phase stator windings spatially shifted by 30 electrical degrees and fed by two three-phase VSIs. Despite their advantage of power segmentation, these machines are characterized by large zero sequence harmonic currents, and in particular those of order 6 k plusmn 1, which are due to the mutual cancellation between the two stator windings. The proposed SVPWM scheme, while easy to implement digitally, reduces significantly these extra stator harmonic currents. Experimental results, collected from a 15 kW prototype machine controlled by a digital signal processor, are presented and discussed.     

Minimum current magnitude control of surface PM synchronous machines during constant power operation

The dual-mode inverter control (DMIC) was initially developed to provide broad constant power speed range (CPSR) operation for a surface mounted permanent magnet machine (PMSM) having low inductance. The DMIC interfaces the output of a common voltage source inverter (VSI) to the PMSM through an ac voltage controller. The ac voltage controller consists of three pairs of anti-parallel silicon controlled rectifiers (SCRs), one anti-parallel SCR pair in series with each winding of the motor. In a recent paper a fundamental frequency model of DMIC type controllers was developed using an equivalent reactance interpretation of the in-line SCRs. In this work, the same fundamental frequency model is used to show that the DMIC may have considerable loss reduction benefits even if the motor winding inductance is large. Specifically, it is shown that the SCRs enable maximum watts per rms amp control during constant power operation. The rms motor current can be minimized for any given power level and sufficiently large speed with DMIC. A fixed winding inductance and a conventional inverter can only be optimized for a single speed and power level. The performance predicted by the fundamental frequency model of the DMIC is compared to that of a conventional PMSM drive where the motor has sufficiently large inductance to achieve an infinite CPSR. It is shown that the SCRs can reduce motor current by a factor of 0.7071 at high speed and rated power. This would reduce the motor copper losses by 50% and reduce the conduction losses in the VSI by 29.3%. At less than rated power the percentage of motor/VSI loss reduction enabled by the SCRs is seen to be even larger.     

Zero-Voltage Switching DC Link Single-Phase Pulsewidth-Modulated Voltage Source Inverter

A zero voltage switching (ZVS) dc link, single-phase, pulsewidth- modulated voltage source inverter (VSI) is proposed. Operating principle and various operating intervals of the converter are presented and analyzed. Design considerations are discussed and a design example of a 300 VA VSI is given. Experimental results from a laboratory prototype model are presented. ZVS is achieved for forward and reverse power flow, without increasing the voltage stress on the inverter devices.     

Reactive power consumption in photovoltaic inverters: a novel configuration for voltage regulation in low‐voltage radial feeders with no need for central control

High photovoltaic (PV) system generation in low‐voltage feeders can cause voltage rise especially in low demand conditions. The conventional way of coping with voltage violation is disconnection of the PV systems or curtailment of the generated power. To address this issue, a novel configuration for voltage management in a radial feeder via regulated reactive power capability in PV inverters is presented. The novelty of the proposed configuration is based on the fact that all the PV inverters with the ability to consume reactive power are involved in voltage regulation without being centrally controlled. In order to apply the configuration, a reference voltage is initially estimated for each PV system, and the PV inverters are calibrated accordingly. These settings depend on the feeder topology and can be calculated by the distribution network operator with a simple power flow modelling tool. Finally, this paper presents a sensitivity analysis in order to examine how reactive power consumption in a single inverter influences PV penetration and inverter sizing at various PV topologies along the feeder. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sensitivity Study of the Dynamics of Three-Phase Photovoltaic Inverters With an LCL Grid Filter

An accurate small-signal model of three-phase photovoltaic (PV) inverters with a high-order grid filter is derived in this paper. The proposed model takes into account the influence of both the inverter operating point and the PV panel characteristics on the inverter dynamic response. A sensitivity study of the control loops to variations of the dc voltage, PV panel transconductance, supplied power, and grid inductance is performed using the proposed small-signal model. Analytical and experimental results carried out on a 100-kW PV inverter are presented.      

Advanced Control and Analysis of Cascaded Multilevel Converters Based on P-Q Compensation

This paper introduces new controls for the cascaded multilevel power converter. This converter is also sometimes referred to as a ldquohybrid converterrdquo since it splits high-voltage/low-frequency and low-voltage/pulsewidth-modulation (PWM)-frequency power production between ldquobulkrdquo and ldquoconditioningrdquo converters respectively. Cascaded multilevel converters achieve higher power quality with a given switch count when compared to traditional multilevel converters. This is a particularly favorable option for high power and high performance applications such as naval ship propulsion. This paper first presents a new control method for the topology using three-level bulk and conditioning inverters connected in series through a three-phase load. This control avoids PWM frequency switching in the bulk inverter. The conditioning inverter uses a capacitor source and its control is based on compensating the real and reactive (P-Q) power difference between the bulk inverter and the load. The new control explicitly commands power into the conditioning inverter so that its capacitor voltage remains constant. A unique space vector analysis of hybrid converter modulation is introduced to quantitatively determine operating limitations. The conclusion is then generalized for all types of controls of the hybrid multilevel converters (involving three-level converter cells). The proposed control methods and analytical conclusions are verified by simulation and laboratory measurements.     

自举式三相半桥级联型多电平逆变器

本文提出了一种新型的三相四线制多电平逆变器,它在常规六开关三相全桥逆变输出上,再级联一级半桥,并加入自举电路,负载中线与输入电源正极相连.在纹波跟踪分段式SPWM(Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation)调制下,级联的半桥电能由自举电路工作时得到.该电路拓扑结构及其控制方法,减少了多电平逆变的独立直流电源数,提高了逆变输出电压.文章用逐段计算法分析了规则采样SPWM调制法的自举电容的纹波和电流,以及产生的谐波.通过分析和实验表明,自举电容的电容量、充电回路电阻、负载和调制度等,均对自举电容的纹波和电流有影响.     

Cascaded Multilevel Inverter Employing Three-Phase Transformers and Single DC Input

This paper proposes an isolated cascaded multilevel inverter employing low-frequency three-phase transformers and a single dc input power source. The proposed circuit configuration can reduce a number of transformers compared with traditional three-phase multilevel inverters using single-phase transformers. It controls switching phase angles to obtain an optimal switching pattern identified with the fundamental frequency of the output voltage. Owing to this control strategy, harmonic components of the output voltage and switching losses can be diminished considerably. To verify the performance of the proposed approach, we implemented computer-aided simulations and experiments using a prototype.      

DSP-based control of a high frequency three cell flying capacitor inverter

The design, instrumentation and early operation results of a digitally controlled voltage source inverter (VSI) are described. This inverter has been structured from a three cell flying capacitor inverter (TCFCI). Two different inverter control modes – open-loop and closed-loop – are applied by a digital system based on a Texas Instrument TMS320C6713 digital signal processor (DSP) board. The VSI is able to generate AC voltage signals up to 120 V amplitudes at a maximal 6 A current, from ～9 kHz to ～60 kHz in ～900 Hz steps in both controls by varying the signal period through the square-wave command strategy. The multi-cell structure of the inverter provides an output frequency nearly three times that of the TCFCI semiconductor commutation. The power output of the TCFCI can drive a high frequency step-up transformer which, in turn, is associated with a cylindrical reactor where dielectric barrier discharges (DBD) are conducted.